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Cissy's note: Melissa Merrick, PhD (pictured above), is a Senior Epidemiologist with the Surveillance Branch in the Division of Violence Prevention at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. She will be the keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Essentials for Childhood summit and share about new ACEs data (see below) about which populations have the highest levels of ACEs on average. An excerpt from this article published on the JAMA Network can be found below. Please follow...

The new Trauma-Informed Care Implementation Resource Center offers a one-stop information hub for health care providers and other stakeholders interested in learning about and implementing trauma-informed care.

DAYTON, Ohio — Dr. Randy Marriott clicked open the daily report he gets on drug overdoses in the county.Only one in the last 24 hours — stunningly low compared to the long lists he used to scroll through last year in a grim morning routine. “They just began to abruptly drop off,” said Dr. Marriott, who oversees the handoff of patients from local rescue squads to Premier Health, the region’s biggest hospital system. Overdose deaths in Montgomery County, anchored by Dayton, have plunged this...

On the morning of April 13, 2015, a guard at Sullivan Correctional Facility, a New York State maximum-security prison nestled deep in the woods of the western Catskills, ordered a prisoner named Karl Taylor to clean his cell. By all accounts, the cell, in the prison’s E North housing block—a special unit for inmates classified as mentally ill—was a rancid mess, strewn with papers and clothes, and soaked with shampoo and other liquids. Taylor, however, had balked for weeks at cleaning it. He...

The California assemblyman Jim Wood spent most of the past week in the Sacramento morgue, analyzing the charred remains of human teeth. Wood is a forensic-dentistry expert, and has worked on some of the nation’s most tragic events, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Since his election to the State Assembly, in 2014—representing an enormous district that stretches from Santa Rosa, in wine country, north to the Oregon border—his forensics work has been closer to home. In 2017, after the...

“There it is,” Yolanda Vasquez said, pointing to the converted garage she and her family of six lived in for four years. We stood on Kewen Avenue, a block from Telfair Elementary School. Vasquez was giving me a tour of her old neighborhood on a blistering September afternoon before picking up her daughter, Ammy, a third-grader. “I have one son diagnosed with autism, and it was difficult to be in such a small space,” said Vasquez, who paid $1,175 a month for the garage but finally found a...

When the Teaching Tolerance Educator Grants program launched in 2017, we wanted to support educators in embedding anti-bias principles throughout their schools, creating affirming school climates and educating youth to thrive in a diverse democracy. An important aspect of this work is meaningfully addressing the ways in which racial injustice grounds American history and our present. This year, two educators who received Teaching Tolerance Educator Grants braved the topics of white supremacy...

“Images and news reports of tear gas being used on children and families seeking asylum at our border have stunned and shaken pediatricians just as they have so many others across the country. Our objection to this type of treatment of children and their parents is grounded in our own policy: “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all immigrant children and families seeking safe haven are treated with dignity and respect to protect their health and well-being. Children who are...

Over 11 million undocumented immigrants reside in the United States. Many arrived as children, attended school in the U.S. and consider the country their home. Over 60 percent of the undocumented population has lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more. However, undocumented students face substantial barriers to higher education due to their legal status. This brief outlines key facts about the barriers undocumented students face in terms of access to higher education. Undocumented families...

This is a love-offering from a highly trained trauma-coach, healer, and activist Victor Lee Lewis. (See Links below) My friend, mentor and colleague of 18 years, Victor Lee Lewis is offering a 90 minute online training for "Rapid Pain Relief" for individuals and healing professionals. The modality is called Emotional Freedom Technique (or tapping). He describes it as a highly effective, portable, simple way of activating one's own acupuncture meridians for rapid relief with gentle tapping...

ACEs Connection Webinar: The trauma toll on pediatric immigrants, refugees and their families You’ll receive tips for health care providers in pediatric settings and beyond When: Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, 10:30-11:30 am Pacific Time/1:30-2:30 Eastern Time Please register here for this webinar. Our speakers include: Dr. Heyman Oo , MD MPH is a primary care pediatrician in Marin County and an Associate Physician/Clinical Instructor for the General Pediatrics Department at Zuckerberg San Francisco...

Lara Kain is an experienced educator, consultant, and national speaker on implementing ACEs science and trauma-informed practices into schools and communities, with a focus on building holistic trauma-responsive systems. She brings over two decades of experience at the local, state, and national level. Before joining ACEs Connection, she developed trauma-informed community schools in Los Angeles, worked for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction supporting school improvement and as...